My Own Private Idaho

“Wherever, whatever, have a nice day.”

Mike Waters (River Phoenix) sells himself to strangers on the streets of Portland, and without warning he drops into sleep, a narcoleptic collapse that can take him anywhere. He sets out for Idaho and then Italy to find his estranged mother, and Gus Van Sant loosely folds in Shakespeare's Henry IV along the way. Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), a mayor's rebellious son working the same corners, goes with him, and the two lean on each other.